Bernard Spiers was born in 1895 at Llanforda Hall where his father, James, was coachman. His mother, Mary, would  have 8 children, Bernard was her fifth and second son. Bernard began his working life as a groom in the stables at Llanforda Hall but in 1910 joined the regular army – aged 17 and having to get his father’s written permission. At this time his parents had moved into town and were living at 47 Albert Road.

Llanforda Hall was the home of  Thomas Longueville, solicitor and local land owner. Longueville, and his wife Mary, were benefactors of Our Lady and St Oswald’s RC Church, Oswestry, donating land and paying for the church and buildings. The Longuevillles had 4 children Reginald, Mary, Edward and Francis. All three sons served as officers in the Coldstream Guards during WW1 and survived the conflict.

Bernard enlisted at Wrexham in December 1909 joining 3 Bn RWF, a reserve and training unit of the regular army. He went on to be posted to 2 Bn RWF at Cork, Ireland in July 1910. He worked with the battalion horse transport – an army assessment gives him as ‘a good man with horses’ – a skill from his days as a groom. He was not though a model soldier and had a string of disciplinary offences committed between 1911 and 1913. These included being late for parade, late for fatigues, not cleaning his kit and having a dirty bayonet, not complying with orders, absent from parade, improper conduct by not having his rifle on sentry duty, breaking out of barracks, improper dress and going AWOL. Whilst in Dublin he also contracted scabies.

In January 1914 the battalion was posted to Malta. His bad behaviour continued where he was convicted of disobeying regimental standing orders, by shaving his lip – it was at the time compulsory to have a moustache. As punishment for this offence he was docked pay, demoted and confined to barracks. His offending, however, seems to have stopped when war broke out when it would have been dealt with more severely. In September 1914 the battalion returned to the UK from Malta and went over to France on 5 October 1914. In December he was wounded by shrapnel. He returned to duty going back to France at the end of February 1915 and being posted to 2 Bn RWF. He was KIA 20 July 1916 during the Somme Offensive. The battalion were moving up from Flat Iron Copse to High Wood when they were heavily shelled.

In a letter to his parents, a comrade wrote ‘Your son was killed on the morning of July 20 when the battalion was advancing to the attack. He was quite close to me at the time and was killed instantaneously by a shell and suffered no pain whatsoever. I have not been long with the company but I had previously seen your son volunteering bravely for a difficult and dangerous task, and you have the satisfaction of knowing he was a fine soldier. All his comrades and officers join me in expressing our great sympathy with you in your loss, I am sorry I can glean no information as to where he is buried.‘ This last sentence was a response to a question asked by his mother as to where Bernard was buried. Her enquires would continue, in a letter on Bernard’s military file, dated March 1922, she asked for help or information about where his grave was. Bernard’s body was lost and he is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial. He is also commemorated on the war memorials at St Oswald’s and at Our Lady and St Oswald’s RC churches in Oswestry.

Acknowledgements.

References and Sources

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